Showing posts with label companies. Show all posts
Showing posts with label companies. Show all posts

Any Excuse for Cheap Thai Labor But Not Economics

Aussie companies use cheap Thai labor.
Companies betray Australia by moving offshore. It is amazing what they will say to justify such "job robbing" behavior. Executives even lie to themselves and never admit that the move is only to make more profit. Thai cheap labor economics
Thai factory workers
A case in point is the company Fibre King. This is a family business. Pat Boland, the joint managing director, says that the culture of Thailand was the reason to shift production to that country. This is absolute rot! economic cheap labor

He is going to fly in engineers to oversee Thai factory workers. No doubt, the Thai workers will be treated like slaves as their low wages dictate. The company will use the tried and proven colonial style system. Design and sales will be retained in Australia. This is 25 per cent of the workforce. The Thai "automatons" will slave away in the sweatshop in Thailand.
 Economics 
 
oz, cheap, companies, fibre, fibre king, king, labor, sales, thai, thailand, trade, unskilled, economics, excuse

GM Not for Food Okay for Health

Genetic modification is favored in health but not for food.
Convincing people to eat genetically modified food still has a long way to go to gain majority acceptance. Yet, just about everyone is in favor of using gene technology to treat health problems. This is a strange anomaly. Gene manipulation of any kind will change the world we live in. Once a change has been made and it spreads through the environment it is there forever.
The case against genetically modified crops, GMCs
Drug companies admit they have lost the war in Europe. There is no way that GM food will ever be accepted there. It is largely an emotional decision, not scientifically based. Possibly, in the near future, Europe will ban DNA experimentation in health as well. This will be counter-productive. If money is invested in nations that welcome gene science then the environment will change anyway because we all live in the same world.

There is a major problem looming, however, on the real future of genetically modified crops. To be profitable farmers must use Monsanto's Roundup. This is losing its effectiveness, particularly in Western Australia which has recently relaxed laws restricting GMCs. The cart isn't much use without the horse.  Even crops modified to be resistant against glyphosate could become weeds in the future.  Unless a new effective herbicide is developed soon the industry will not attract investors - potential profit drives everything.
 Gemetics by Ty Buchanan 
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GM MAYBE
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Insurance Companies to Force Genetic Testing

Life insurance is a con. We all know that. They take your money. Then when you make a claim they force you into court to make you back down or run you up a huge legal bill. I cashed my life insurance in when they stopped paying the share investment bonus that doubled what you paid in. Now if you close the policy you get back "less" than you paid in premiums.
Insurance companies want compulsory genetic testing
No one is perfect out there, so when they say they will make people have genetic tests before they can take out a policy you should be afraid. The big three insurers say they have not had one complaint from consumers so far. Unfortunately, the ones who had genetic tests have not made any claims yet. There will thousands of complaints when the insurance companies fail to pay out.

Thankfully, you cannot be forced to have a genetic test currently. However, you must hand one over if you have already had one - by law. Just why the government made giving up private information compulsory under force of law is a mystery.

Of those who have had a test or have had one when instructed by insurers (400), a very high 20 percent were refused cover. This is much higher than the half a million who gained cover without a test.
Genetics  by Ty Buchanan
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Inquiry Into Tax Dodge by Tech Giants is a Lie Fest

It amazes me how people can blatantly lie, and continue to lie, when everyone else knows the truth. There is a Senate inquiry in Australia into big companies, mainly tech giants, avoiding tax that is owed to this country. Mr King, the head of Apple Australia strongly denies that the company is reducing its tax payments through questionable methods. Fair "crack in the door mate" we all know what is really going on. Is Ireland involved in these methods?
Tony King head of Apple Australia
Apple and Google are the major companies targeted by the inquiry. Britain is planning to regulate to make them pay what is due there. Other countries are watching to see what Britain does. Of course, the easiest way to get money out of the tech megaliths is to introduce a revenue tax irrespective of profit, because it is profit that is being skimmed off subsidiaries by head office for non-existent services.

The Australian Tax Office wants its pound of flesh from internationals as it does from locals. Last year Apple paid $80m in tax from profit of $250m. Revenue was $6 billion. While this is a tax rate of 32 per cent, the profit margin of only 4.17 percent is highly suspect. Apple charges a fixed rate of 30 per cent on all app revenue in its App Store. Furthermore, it has huge income from sales of its own merchandise for which the profit margin is not widely known.

Mr King said that Apple would willingly enter into an agreement with the ATO. By saying this he clearly believes that he can choose not to follow Australian law. Apple's tax rate of 32 per cent seems reasonable at first glance when compared to Google Australia's rate of 15 percent. However, Google's profit margin of 13 per cent is more realistic.

Lastly, Mr King of Apple said that Australian app developers had made a fortune out of new apps.  He fails to mention the gargantuan amount made by Apple from these.  The guaranteed 30 per cent on all downloads is a money grab by any definition considering Apple has set this rate itself and it can easily raise it at any time, even for apps already available.
Technology by Ty Buchanan
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NRMA Lies to and Robs its Customers

The car insurance industry needs a shakeup. There is disgusting bias by insurance companies. It is like the police policing the police. Why are insurance companies allowed to judge blame in accidents when a particular outcome benefits them?
If shared blamed is decided upon by the insurance companies of both parties involved in an accident, the insurance companies keep the $600 excess paid by the drivers. This is a shocking state of affairs. An independent tribunal should be set up to judge the fault outcome of motor vehicle accidents.

It is absurd to leave decision making in the hands of an involved party, namely insurance companies. An aggrieved party can appeal to the insurance company itself. The outcome is certain - the appeal will be turned down. Apart from the Small Claims Tribunal there is not much an insured person can do.

If a party is uninsured an insurance company will write a letter to the insured person saying that due to insufficient evidence he/she is at fault for the accident: thus, the insurer keeps the $600 excess. This is a policy planned and carried out by insurance companies to rob their customers.

Very little is recovered from uninsured drivers. This is because few respond to letters from insurance companies. For a phone conversation to be used as evidence an insurer must announce that the call will be recorded and anything said will be used as evidence. If an uninsured driver hears this he will obviously put the phone down.

Basically, if you are an insured driver the insurance company judges you guilty until proven innocent. This is not how common law works. Innocence is the assumed initial state of a suspected individual in common law. It is surprising that so many people accept the existing state of affairs and do not challenge the current situation.

One of the worst offenders for the prevalent fraud is the National Roads and Motorists' Association (NRMA insurance). The Royal Automobile Club of Queensland (RACQ) is not far behind. But all insurance companies continue with this fraudulent behaviour.

I will be setting up a website where frustrated and dare I say angry insured drivers can vent their feelings on how they have been robbed. Watch this space!
Law by Ty Buchanan
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Countries Must Bring in REVENUE TAX.

Multinational companies are making a mockery of national tax policies. Countries have set up collection systems based on the pre-internet period. Everything today is mobile. People and money are flowing freely around the world.

Google, Apple, Facebook and others are moving income from all their national operations to Ireland where the tax rate is ridiculously low. They inundate branches in other countries with mythical charges from head office, so profit is reduced to zero. Of course, in reality it is not zero.

What countries should do is instigate a REVENUE TAX. This idea will shock and frighten CEOs. It is the last thing they want. Companies should be levied with either revenue tax or company tax whichever is the greater. Setting a revenue tax rate at a realistic 4 per cent will solve national tax collection problems. Companies will not be able to avoid paying some tax.

Say a company has revue of $100 million. The tax payable on this would be $4 million. If the firm makes a 10 per cent profit of $10m then the tax owed to a government would be $10 x 0.45 (company tax rate), which means tax of $4.5m is due. Because $4.5 m is greater than $4m the normal company tax method would apply, namely $4.5m.

If a company fiddles the books and declares no profit at all they would have to pay a minimum of $4 and could not avoid it. At least large companies would pay something to national governments. Some businesses make as much as 30 per cent profit on revenue. A national government would not get the $30m x 0.45 = $13.5m. However, $4m is better than nothing.
Economics by Ty Buchanan
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Australian Laws Lag Behind Technological Change

Culture changes steadily with technological development. Some values have their own inertia which means that they stay around for much longer. Legal adaptation to a new environment is very slow. We are living with laws suited to a pre-internet era.

The Uber app took the world by storm. It spread through many countries and clashed with legal restrictions which were made for the benefit of taxi drivers and the public. Unfortunately, people do not like rapid change to the legal system. It upsets the way they live.

Like the Chinese, Australians embrace new technology, much to the frustration of government. Whether it is legal or not we adopt new things. They "get in" because their is some legal framework that benefits some participants in the market place. New systems get under the barrier, so to speak.

Australians seems to lead the world on illegal movie downloads. This is because the market is distorted. We pay over the odds for the latest films due to overpricing by American companies: they obviously do not understand that they lose money in the long run.

Some market distortions are being dismantled by Companies who have had the market to themselves for years. The pay TV business Foxtel has halved its small packages largely due to the appearance of Netflix Australia. Unfortunately, Teltra partly owns Foxtel and sells the premium Foxtel service with their broadband bundles. The Foxtel subscription remains the same but with two free movies a month given now. Some companies will never learn! This is why consumers move to new products, legal or not.
Science by Ty Buchanan
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Revolutionary Mineral Drill Rig Announced

Drilling techniques in industry have not changed for decades. Oil rigs are built in he same old way. Now something has come along that will improve drilling enormously. The Deep Exploration Technologies Cooperative Research Centre based in Adelaide has announced a new type of drill. It is constructed with coiled tubing.

Costs will fall dramatically as drilling is faster.  Australia's mines are mostly over 30 years old. New mines have to be established. We can only rely on the old mines for another 20 years.

No longer is it necessary to keep stopping to add a new drilling section. The new drill is a continuous coil of tubing. Being smaller and lighter transportation is easy. The motor is at the bottom of the shaft, not at the top. The tubing no longer twists during drilling. Any twisting will occur in the other direction as the motor pulls the tubing around.

Less drilling power is needed as the tubing is being pulled around in already drilled space. A lot of torque was lost with the old system as the engine had to force the whole length of the drill around. Drilling will continue with fewer drill breakages. Thus, downtime will be reduced.
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Technology by Ty Buchanan
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Worry Over Job Security Increases With Casual Work

Gone are the days of local business monopolies where shops, for example, had a higher profit margin so they could keep employees in secure employment for decades. In the past shopping centers didn't exist and a firm had a local licence. Only one type of business could operate in a regional center. If a shop had the fish licence and decided to sell only fish, no fish and chips, you as a customers had to go without a quick hot meal.

The proportion of casual workers is increasing every year. Just how these employees manage to build up capital for retirement is anyone's guess. Holiday pay is said to be built into casual rates, but this is a myth. Such workers hardly ever take a day off because they will not get any pay.

People worry more over job security than anything else. Despite all the troubles in the world, Macquarie University found employees experience more anxiety over losing their jobs than any other issue. This affects men more than women. Seventy per cent of men worry compared to 60 per cent of women. Young people suffered most: eighty per cent were concerned.
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Society

Internet Companies Are Not Complying With Police

Despite calls by some countries for Internet companies to had over information on citizens' searches and email, the knowledge superhighway is moving in the other direction. Information stored in the cloud are out of reach of national police forces. Gone are the days when just about everything that a suspect has done is available recorded somewhere at sometime. Data is there but it cannot be accessed.

The ordinary person will not have much sympathy for police trying to "background" a suspect. They see authorities as being too intrusive anyway. For years Australian social security sent out "demand" forms for aged pensioners to provide up-to-date information about what they had in the bank. A court found that social security did not have the legal right to demand honest answers. The forms are still being sent out. Legally they are still suspect. Such is the quagmire authorities are in.

Anyway, back to the case in hand. Police are saying even getting data from Google is a problem. Even obtaining information Between Australians in Australia has barriers. In some cases it takes five year to get information via court processes. In that time period technology has moved on and not everything is stored for posterity.

The National police forces' desire for greater access is like smoke over a factory chimney. It will blow away with the breeze. Companies operating across national borders will never comply because their customers don't want them to play the game. The European Cybercrime Convention treaty is a furphy. Internet companies are watching with no intention of complying.
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Internet

Future Fund Invests in Tobacco

Hypocrisy reigns. The Australian Government is bringing in extremely tough smoking laws, yet investment in tobacco companies is seen to be alright.

In 2006 the then Coalition Government set up a future fund. Its goals were to fund future costs of pensions for public servants, judges and so on. A look at the books as shown that the fund's managers deem holding shares in 14 tobacco companies to be a good thing. They obviously don't think the Government's actions to ban tobacco firms from putting their name on cigarette packets will lead to a fall in profit nor affect secure future operations.

Tobacco investment is only 0.5 per cent of total investment. However, it is unethical and it goes against Government policy. While making the highest return is written into fund guidelines, the body is supposed to be monitored by the Treasurer. There seems to be a difference of opinion between the Prime Minister and Treasurer. The Prime Minister fully supports the name and logo ban initiative, but the Treasurer said, "...the Future Fund takes its investment decisions at arms length of the government."
~~~~~Politics~~~~~
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